We're on track for rail subway

PUBLISHED: 13:27 06 April 2006 | UPDATED: 14:38 12 May 2010

A SUBWAY is planned to provide a safe rail crossing in Royston after more than 30 years of talks. It will be constructed under the Royston-Cambridge railway line at Coombes Hole. But Royston's county councillor Doug Drake has warned that work on the £3.

A SUBWAY is planned to provide a safe rail crossing in Royston - after more than 30 years of talks.
It will be constructed under the Royston-Cambridge railway line at Coombes Hole.
But Royston's county councillor Doug Drake has warned that work on the £3.25million project is unlikely to begin for 18 months.
Meanwhile, Hertfordshire County Council has promised to carry out public consultation exercises on the project.
The announcement of the development of the subway came at the annual town meeting in Royston Town Hall on Thursday evening.
Cllr Drake said the scheme had been given the go-ahead earlier during a meeting of the county council's highways and transport panel.
The panel had to decide whether to provide a subway or a bridge for a crossing and whether it should be located at Coombes Hole or at the junction of Morton Street and Green Street.
Cllr Drake said: "It was decided that the preferred scheme had to be a subway, and it was also decided that the site had to be Coombes Hole.
"The project will go ahead on that basis."
Cllr Drake assured members of the public that the decision to use Coombes Hole was now "final".
"It's a decision that stands and the county engineers have been told to go away and work on that location," he said.
The decision to create a subway at Coombes Hole comes after the county council conducted a survey of residents around both sites and put plans on public display.
Both sites were opposed by residents in each of the areas chosen as options for a safe crossing.
Cllr Drake said the subway would have "sensible lighting" and be equipped with closed-circuit television cameras.
"There will be time to design out the problems," he said. "We are going to take time to get in right.